300 vaccine shots a week is all Columbia County gets

HUDSON, N.Y. (NEWS10)—Soon after the state announced the next phase of people to be vaccinated, the phone lines at the Columbia County Health Department started to ring. A call center was quickly established at the Columbia County office building at 401 State Street to answer residents’ questions.

“We can tell the public to be patient,” said Jack Mabb, Director for Heath in Columbia County Monday. “That’s all we can do. I think President-Elect Biden has indicated he is releasing the reserves, and when he does, that’s something like 55 million shots. That will go out, and I think you will see a bump up. Do I think that will be enough to do 1b? Probably not, but it will be a lot more people who get the vaccine in their arms.”

Director Mabb explained his county only gets 300 shots a week and it isn’t enough to vaccinate the seniors in his county. 

“When you move from 1a, which was a very narrow category to something like this which is a very broad category,” explained Mabb, “the estimates are anywhere between three and four million people in New York State, that’s thousands in Columbia County, and I have to make do with 300 a week.”

Already vaccination pods for Wednesday and Thursday have filled up with 480 shots given to the county by Columbia Memorial Hospital.  The County’s 300 shots this week will be used on a vaccination pod on Friday.